Youngsters aged six and seven were enjoying a swimming lesson in the training pool at the Dolphin Centre, in Darlington town centre, when the incident happened on Monday (December 14) evening.
Bosses at the Darlington Borough Council-run centre said ‘all necessary checks’ were carried out following the vomiting incident.
That is at odds with the account of one mother, who said the pool was not cleared after the child was sick and attendants used a net to fish bits of vomit out of the pool.
The mother-of-three, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “My daughter was having a swimming lesson and another little girl suddenly got out of the pool and we were all wondering what was wrong and if she was okay.
“After about five minutes, I saw the attendants fishing around the pool with a net and that’s when we found out the girl had been sick in water.
“I immediately wanted my daughter out of the pool and I realised there were two pieces of sick floating next to her.
“Nobody knew what was happening and I asked one of the lifeguards why they had not taken my kid out of the pool.”
A council spokeswoman said: “We follow comprehensive industry guidelines when dealing with any incident like this.
In the summer of 1994, Intel types discovered a flaw with their Pentium computer chip, but thought the matter trivial; it was not publicly disclosed until Oct. 30, 1994, when a mathematician at Lynchburg College in Virginia, Thomas Nicely, posted a warning on the Internet.
As perceived problems and complaints rose through the weekend Andrew S. Grove, Intel’s chairman and CEO, composed an apology to be posted on an Internet bulletin board—actually a web, but because he was at home with no direct Internet access, he asked Intel scientist Richard Wirt to post the message from his home account; But because it bore Mr. Wirt’s electronic address, the note’s authenticity was challenged, which only added to the fury of the Internet attacks on Intel.
At 8 a.m. the following Monday inside the company’s Santa Clara, Calif. headquarters, Intel officials set to work on the crisis the way they attacked a large problems—like an engineering problem. Said Paul Otellini, senior vice-president for worldwide sales, “It was a classic Intellian approach to solving any big problem. We broke it down into smaller parts; that was comforting.”
By the end of week two, the crisis looked to be subsiding; Then on Monday, Nov. 12, 1994, the International Business Machines Corp. abruptly announced that its own researchers had determined that the Pentium flaw would lead to division errors much more frequently than Intel said. IBM said it was suspending shipments of personal computers containing the Pentium chip
Mr. Grove was stunned. The head of IBM’s PC division, Richard Thoman, had given no advance warning. A fax from Thoman arrived at Intel’s HQ on Monday morning after the IBM announcement, saying he had been unable to find Grove’s number during the weekend. Mr. Grove, whose number is listed, called directory assistance twice to ask for his own number to ensure he was listed.
After the IBM announcement, the number of calls to Santa Clara overwhelmed the capacity of AT&T’s West Coast long-distance telephone switching centres, blocking calls. Intel stock fell 6.5 per cent.
As John Markoff of the N.Y. Times wrote on the front-page in Dec. 1994, the reluctance of Intel to act earlier, according to Wall Street analysts, was the result of a corporate culture accustomed to handling technical issues rather than addressing customers’ hopes and fears.
Only then, Mr. Grove said, did he begin to realize that an engineer’s approach was inappropriate for a consumer problem.
According to one op-ed writer, Intel’s initial approach to the problem—prove you are doing sophisticated calculations if you want a replacement chip—was like saying “until you get to be cardinal, any internal doubts about the meaning of life are your own problem, a debate tha has been going on since before Martin Luther.
Intel’s doctrine of infallibility was facing an old-fashioned Protestant revolt.” (John Hockenberry, Pentium and our Crisis of Faith, N.Y. Times, Dec. 28, 1994, A11; this is how things were referenced before hot links)
Why and how did Intel go wrong? The answer is rooted in Intel’s distinctive corporate culture, and suggests that Intel went wrong in much the same way as other big and unresponsive companies before it.
Intel has traditionally valued engineering over product marketing. Inward-looking and wary of competitors (from experience with the Japanese) it developed a bunker mentality, a go-for-the-juglar attitude and reputation for arrogance.
According to one former engineer, Federico Faggin, a co-inventor of Intel’s first microprocessor, “The attitude at Intel is, ‘We’re better than everyone else and what we do is right and we never make mistakes.’”
Finally, on Dec. 20, Grove apparently realized that he and his company were standing at Ground Zero for an incoming consumer relations meteor. Intel announced that it would replace the defective chips—and pay for the labor—no questions asked, for the life of the original PC.
Discussing Intel’s previous position, Grove said, “To some people, this seemed arrogant and uncaring. We apologize for that.”
So what does a consumer with a Pentium do? Teach Intel that this isn’t about white paper. It’s about green paper—the money you paid and the performance you didn’t get. Replace that chip. After all, consumers deserve to be treated with respect, courtesy and a little common sense.
Now apply all of that Intel stuff to Chipotle.
They even took out a full-page ad to apologize, just like Intel, but people still read newspapers 20 years ago. Today, the strategy seems hopelessly out of touch for a tragically hipster company.
Chipotle is the opposite, focusing too much on consumer whims and not enough on food science, and now it’s going to get worse.
The County’s chronology includes detailed tracking of the complaints as they came in and as the illnesses were confirmed as Norovirus victims. From that first report through Sept. 25, 2015, the chronology comes to this conclusion: ”the total number of reportedly ill customers and employees at this Chipotle outbreak investigation is 234.”
The number of victims was being reported in other media as recently as this week as just 98.
And, the internal document says the real number of victims of Chipotle’s Simi Valley outbreak could be higher still. “In reviewing the food logs provided by Chipotle for both 8/18/15 and 8/19/15, it is estimated at least 1500+ entrees were sold each day.” Sandy Murray, who did the analysis for the division, wrote: “Thus, the actual number of customers and employees ill from this outbreak is likely to be substantially higher than the reported number of 234.”
This week Chipotle ran print advertisements in 60 newspaper markets Wednesday with an apology from Steve Ells, the burrito chain’s founder and co-chief executive. His apology though only went to the victims of the current nine state E. coli 026 outbreak and the Boston College outbreak.
“From the beginning, all of our food safety programs have met or exceeded industry standards, “ Ells says (Pinto defense). “But recent incidents, an E. coli outbreak that sickened 52 people and a Norovirus outbreak that sickened approximately 140 people at a single Chipotle restaurant in Boston, have shown us that we need to do better, much better.”
No mention was made of the other foodborne outbreaks.
The publicly traded Chipotle also had one of its better days since its troubles began. CMG stock was up 2.49 percent or $13.79 per share, closing at $568.65 per share.
When I was a kid, my dad made me watch the Yankees. So I became a Mets fan
My parents made me listen to the Beatles, and told me they were good.
I rebelled. I got into Run DMC and the Beastie Boys instead.
Maybe it’s just me, but telling someone what to do doesn’t usually work out.
I don’t know the answer to food handlers showing up to work with foodborne illness symptoms. It seems to happen even with paid sick leave (see Chipotle’s noro outbreak in Boston). An organization has to also make it okay for employees to use the sick leave.
Providing it but ostracizing those who use it is sorta useless.
CBC reports that ill food handlers are involved in yet another norovirus outbreak
The most likely cause of the recent outbreak of illness at the Delta Hotel is staff who were ill with the Norwalk virus while serving or doing food preparation, says P.E.I.’s chief public health officer.
After three Christmas parties at the Delta in Charlottetown in early December, 134 guests reported being ill.
Dr. Heather Morrison said 35 Delta staff also reported being ill, and four stool samples from staff and guests have come back positive for Norwalk, also known as norovirus.
Provincial senior environmental health officer Ryan Neale said there is no way, in the early incubation stages of the virus, to reduce the risk of transmission of norovirus to zero, although handwashing and good use of gloves can help.
Morrison said the hotel has enhanced its cleaning and adjusted its food handling practices, including the types of food being prepared for buffets, but she doesn’t know of anything the hotel could have done to avoid the outbreak.
Not having ill staff show up and handle food might have helped.
CNBC, where business analysts who look like Louis C.K. like to yell like Lewis Black, asked Chipotle executives how they will change their business after five recent outbreaks. Their answer was: food safety is really, really important to us now.
“We want to show all of our customers that the industry standards that we had been employing before — which are considered great standards — were not good enough. They were not good enough because something like this could happen,” said founder and co-CEO Steve Ells.
“I will say though, that we can assure you today that there is no E. coli in Chipotle,” Ells said. “We have thoroughly tested our food, we have thoroughly tested our surfaces and we are confident that Chipotle is a safe place to eat.” He also confirmed that the company’s new safety measures will put Chipotle well ahead of industry standards.
To find out of the company has been punished enough, Cramer spoke with Ells and co-CEO Monty Moran.
To implement a rigorous safety protocol, the executive said the company is working with a leading epidemiology team to develop new safety systems. Chipotle is widely known for its integrity in food selection and culture. Cramer asked the Chipotle leaders whether eating with integrity comes at the price of safety?
“We do not believe there is anything less safe about eating that way, and we believe that what we need to do now is put that same innovation that we put toward food with integrity and that we put toward our very special people culture — we’ve got to put that same kind of innovation into food safety now,” Moran said.
There are three important things in my life: my family and friends, hockey, and food safety.
In that order.
A few weeks ago Doug and I had a conversation about the hockey rink being our church; we share fellowship, care about our community and want to share our joy with others; the hours we spend on the ice playing, coaching and skating are unlike anything else we do.
Or as one of my friends put it, ‘The nice thing about hockey is for an hour I tend to forget about all the other crap that’s going on and hang out with folks that share my passion for the game.’
And enjoy the company of people we care about.
A teammate had a shocking tragedy in his family this week and while our team debated cancelling our game, we decided to play tonight. It gives us a place to go to talk about how our community can support our close friend.
I guess that’s what church is all about, too.
Some people have that same feeling about food brands, I guess.
Jack Stalling of the Longview News-Journal writes, Blue Bell Ice Cream is sort of a church and he’s rejoicing that it is back on the market.
Shortly after I married my lovely wife back in February of 1998, Rachel and I treated ourselves to a night out that included dinner and a movie.
Dinner was outstanding, and both of us claimed to be way too stuffed to even consider having dessert.
When I noticed that the restaurant offered Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream on apple pie as one of its dessert choices, I undid another notch on my belt and asked the nice waitress to bring it as fast as her tired legs would carry her.
I could tell Rachel was confused, so I explained one of my fundamental beliefs to my new bride.
“Never pass up the opportunity to eat Blue Bell,” I told her. “Even if you don’t want it right then, some day you might really want some Blue Bell, and if it’s not available, you will remember the time you passed up the opportunity to eat Blue Bell. Do you want that sort of thing creeping into your dreams at night and haunting you?”
As I was deciding what to order, Depeche Mode’s cover of Route 66 came on the radio. This turned out to the absolute perfect soundtrack for my experience. Its cold, clean synth beat was a perfect match for the sterile and antiseptic decor, while David Gahan’s slightly evil baritone voice spoke of infection and the dangers of travel in our modern age – of the danger of seeking “kicks”, and a deal with the devil. Was I gambling with my life, with my eternal soul, by eating Chipotle?
I went ahead anyway, and ordered a barbacoa steak bowl, with white cilantro/lime rice, black beans, sour cream and lettuce. (Guacamole was extra, and I don’t appreciate when restaurants charge extra for things that other restaurants provide gratis, so I skipped it.) I asked for the hottest salsa available, imagining the acid in the habanero peppers might kill any virus or bacteria hiding in my food. Also, I like spicy food.
At the cash register, I found an even better safety precaution. Chipotle serves margaritas! This was a surprise. It felt like going to a McDonald’s and getting to order a martini with your Happy Meal. Whatever E coli or salmonella or norovirus the salsa didn’t burn into oblivion, I figured, would be pickled to anodyne by tequila.
The lady at the cash register was friendly. I asked her if she’d noticed a drop-off in business in the wake of the outbreaks.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “There are way less people coming in lately.”
“But then we’ve got our regulars,” she added, nodding to the people at the tables. “We got people that come every day. They say, ‘I don’t care!’”
I’m enjoying the new Daily Show with Trevor Noah. And this piece by Jordan Klepper on Dec. 2, 2015, beautifully skewers the vanities of foodies (I’m told that’s not a word anymore) everywhere.
Setting: Various home kitchens in Melbourne, Australia.
Participants: Amateur/home cooks.
Main outcome measures: The accuracy of the finger test (the tenseness of the thenar eminence in different hand positions) for determining how well a random beef steak has been cooked (rare v medium-rare v medium v well-done). We also examined whether participants improved with practice and whether the accuracy of the finger test was correlated with age, sex, cooking experience or self-rated steak-cooking ability.
Results: Twenty-six participants completed the study, and showed that they could accurately determine the doneness of a steak with the finger test better than chance (χ2[1, n = 156] = 9.88; P < 0.01). Their overall accuracy, however, was low (36%). There was no correlation between accuracy in application of the finger test with the other collected participant and steak variables.
Conclusions: The finger test can be used by amateur cooks to determine beef steak doneness. However, the low overall accuracy of the test suggests that more invasive tests are to be recommended for determining steak doneness for its health benefits.
Studying the Thenar Eminence of Amateur cooKs (STEAK) study: a double-blinded, cross-sectional study
Toby I Vinycomb, Amanda M-Y Tan, Manu Bhatnagar and Joon Ming Wong
On Monday, December 14, food safety inspectors observed live roaches in the ‘Club Demonstration Services’ area, food storage, and ware-washing room. That demo room was given a ‘Stop Use Order’ and not allowed to reopen until inspectors return for a follow-up inspection and approve its been adequately cleaned and sanitized.
Also during their visit, food safety inspectors issued a temporary stop sale on various food items due to dangerous temperature issues with five pounds of crab legs at 55-degrees and one pound of sausage at 46-degrees. Cold food should be maintained at 41 degrees or below.
Both had to be placed on ice to bring down the temperature before they could be released to be sold.
ABC Action News anchor Wendy Ryan spoke to Craig Wilson, the vice president of food safety for Costco. He told her over the phone that the ‘Demo Room’ was shut down due to the pest issue, so they immediately called EcoLab for treatment to get rid of the roaches and make sure they did not come back.
Wilson also explained that they sanitized and cleaned the area completely, and they’re now waiting on food safety inspectors to return so the room can be used again.s
Wilson said that Costco works 100 percent with the health department and looks forward to things getting back to the way they should be.
Thanks to a Brisbane barfblog.com contributor for highlighting this piece.
The Courier-Mail reports a Cairns father was “shocked and disgusted” when he busted a woman washing dishes in the baby changing room of a major shopping centre.
The man contacted The Cairns Post anonymously after finding a woman washing large bowls and other equipment in the baby room at the city’s Stockland Shopping Centre over the weekend.
“It was disgusting,” he said.
“I was taking my three-year-old son to the toilet, and that’s what we saw.
“I just couldn’t believe she was doing dishes in there so I snapped a photo to show security.”
The man said he approached cleaners and security at the centre, who took the issue up with centre management.
Stockland Cairns centre manager Andrew Provan said “We would like to make it clear that the tenant is not involved in food catering at our centre, and confirm that all food catering tenants have their own commercial dishwashing facilities on-site. Nevertheless, we have instructed the tenant that the parents’ room facilities are there for the express use of our customers with children.”
“This is a cost that we will bear,” Ells told The Associated Press at the beginning of a day stopping by Seattle restaurants to talk to employees about new food safety rules.
Suppliers who are unwilling to meet the new “high resolution testing” requirements, which Ells said are years ahead of testing procedures at other restaurant chains, will no longer do business with Chipotle.
Um, McDonald’s has been imposing such food safety metrics on its suppliers since the mid-1980s.
Ells said the company’s approach to food safety is similar to its focus on food quality and none of the new procedures are impossible or very difficult to follow. It’s easier at some other chains to meet the highest food safety standards because everything is cooked, processed or frozen, which Ells said is not the Chipotle way.
Ells doesn’t understand food safety.
Chipotle is now focused on getting the chance of foodborne illness as close to zero percent as possible, Ells said. But, he added, “it is impossible to insure that there is a zero percent chance of any kind of foodborne illness anytime anyone eats anywhere.”
Um, I wrote a book in 1996 that said zero-risk was a food safety fallacy, echoing the work of many before me.
It would be better to say, this is how we’re reducing the risk, Mr.-5-outbreaks-in-6-months Ells, explain it, and then when ready, market it.
Henry I. Miller wrote in Forbes yesterday — The long defeat of doing nothing well — inspired by a line from poet John Masefield, seems apt: Chipotle, the once-popular Mexican restaurant chain, is experiencing a well-deserved downward spiral.
The company found it could pass off a fast-food menu stacked with high-calorie, sodium-rich options as higher quality and more nutritious because the meals were made with locally grown, genetic engineering-free ingredients. And to set the tone for the kind of New Age-y image the company wanted, Chipotle adopted slogans like, “We source from farms rather than factories” and, “With every burrito we roll or bowl we fill, we’re working to cultivate a better world.”
Outbreaks of food poisoning have become something of a Chipotle trademark; the recent ones are the fourth and fifth this year, one of which was not disclosed to the public. A particularly worrisome aspect of the company’s serial deficiencies is that there have been at least three unrelated pathogens in the outbreaks–Salmonella and E. coli bacteria and norovirus. In other words, there has been more than a single glitch; suppliers and employees have found a variety of ways to contaminate what Chipotle cavalierly sells (at premium prices) to its customers.
A swimming lesson was interrupted after a child vomited in the pool, causing concern for children and parents alike.
